appropriate expressway speed?

W.E.BGood wrote:
Turtle n Peeps..."The difference between 55 and 75 is a lot of miles when you figure 8 hours of driving a day. 160 to be exact. And if you figure it over 14 days one can travel over 2000 more miles."

Turtle, you really wouldn't want to drive 600 miles EVERY DAY for a vacation would you? But, I understand, you're right that some, for any number of reasons, just don't have as much time to "get there". And some of us are blessed (as in retired) that we can enjoy the journey as much as the destination.

Regards, BGood

No not at all, and for 99% of the time I don't. About half that is my style. For example, bout a month ago I traveled 4,600 miles in 20 days for our summer vacation. Saw lots of great things in our beautiful county and loved every minute of it. That is only a little over 200 miles a day. So believe me, we enjoyed the journey whether going 55mph or 75 mph or anywhere in between.

Now some days we spent 2 nights because there was lots to see in some areas. Some we just drove right one through; nothing to see here! LOL

I hope in 15 years I can be retired and wish in less than 10. Then I can travel around at 55 or 50 or whatever mph and see all of this beautiful county.

Happy travels and good times too you W.E.BGood no matter how fast or slow you travel.

Turtle n Peeps..."The difference between 55 and 75 is a lot of miles when you figure 8 hours of driving a day. 160 to be exact. And if you figure it over 14 days one can travel over 2000 more miles."

Turtle, you really wouldn't want to drive 600 miles EVERY DAY for a vacation would you? But, I understand, you're right that some, for any number of reasons, just don't have as much time to "get there". And some of us are blessed (as in retired) that we can enjoy the journey as much as the destination.

Regards, BGood

I tow my boat long distances to a couple of favorite waterways at least once a year ( or twice ) .
I often leave home ( 2 lane US Hiways ) at 5 pm to 12 pm on Thursday night .
I often tow through the night arriving at my destination waterway Friday morning at first light .
Because I start on 2 lane highways I am not obstructed as much by the tourists from the land of freeways who block our 2 lane US Highways by going 54 mph .
A percentage of 4 lane freeway drivers do not understand that they are blocking our main travel routes .
Without these folks blocking my US Hiway route I can set my cruise control on my hd2500 diesel pickup at 62 mph while towing my boat .
I estimate that I save about 1 mpg and I gain an extra 3 mph on average versus driving in the daytime in the summer months .
I stay on the water all day Sunday and tow back home through the night and arrive home sometime Monday morning . I do stop and nap when I get drowsy .
To make for great towing I moved my boat trailer axle to the rear of the trailer about a foot . My boat tracks really well without any hint of sway even in the curves that occur on our 2 lane hiways.
I also upgraded my boat trailer wheels / tires by an inch in diameter and 20 cm in width and one Load Range . This gives me so much excess tire capacity that catastropic tire failure has not been a concern for more than a decade .
Further , I actually lowered by about 2 inches my hd 2500 (4WD) pickup , installed 8 inch wide wheels ( instead of 6.5 " ) and installed 265 LRE Michelin highway tires instead of the factory 245 width factory tires .
These modifications have made an immediately noticeable difference in handling when towing ( and not towing ).
With my TT and $4 diesel , I have just plain resigned myself to going about 61-62 maximum now than the 65-67 or so that I would go a decade ago .
With 2 lane roads the strategies are different than the 4 lane freeway , of course . Same speed but right hand lane .

Bedlam wrote:
What you missed is the faster you drive, the worse your fuel mileage. This requires you to stop more often to refuel which cuts in to the time you saved by initially driving faster. If you argue that your tank is larger allowing to go farther, you still lose additional time refueling your 50 gallons verses my 30 even if we make an equal number of stops.

If you look from the maintenance side, you have to run the engine and transmission harder (hotter) and put more centrifugal forces on your tires and lubrication. All of these things will have a shorter life span if you're pushing 20% faster over the same distance with all else being the equal.

:S :S

Lets do more math.

My Dmax gets 12.0 mpg towing my trailer at 70 to 75 mph. How do I know this? Because I towed the same trailer for 7 years with it and have tracked my mileage and every drop of fuel that goes in it when on vacation. I have done this for 10's of thousands of miles of towing. This year I almost put 5,000 miles on it during my vacation.

My Dmax gets 13.0 to 13.3 mpg towing my trailer at 55 to 60 mph. How do I know this? Because I live in a state that only allows towing at 55 mph so I track the mileage when I drive in state. I live in a big state so it takes me a while to get out of state so I have thousands of miles of fuel data in state that I have logged.

Now lets do more math:

If I fill my tank with 35 gallons of diesel and drive 55 mph at 13 mpg I can drive 455 miles.

If I fill my tank with 35 gallons of diesel and drive 75 mph at 12 mpg I can drive 420 miles.

So I lose a whole 35 miles per tank. WooooooooooooooW!!!! A whole 35 miles/ tank!!!! :R

Well guess what? I only like to drive about 300 to 350 miles per day anyway. So I only have to fill my tank 1 time a day just like if I drove 55 mph. You see, I like to take that hour and a half that I saved and stop at museums and parks and stuff like that. Where as the guy that drives 55 mph has to drive straight through because he lost 1.5 / day or whatever he loses.

Lets just say for some bizarre reason I have to fill twice a day to your once. It takes me no longer than 15 minutes tops to stop, fill and I'm on my way. Lets even say 1/2 an hour for some reason. I will still have more than an hour to do with what I want to but you will have to drive that hour.

As far as maintenance goes. Now your just being silly; at least I hope so. :R You do know your truck will run an hour and a half longer / day than my truck don't you? For my vacation this year, your truck would run about 30 MORE hours driving at your speed than my truck driving at mine. :E

Besides I own a Chevy so I don't worry too much about breaking down or pushing my truck too hard. :B Owners of other brands may have to worry, but not with my truck. :B

Bedlam wrote:
What you missed is the faster you drive, the worse your fuel mileage. This requires you to stop more often to refuel which cuts in to the time you saved by initially driving faster. If you argue that your tank is larger allowing to go farther, you still lose additional time refueling your 50 gallons verses my 30 even if we make an equal number of stops.

If you look from the maintenance side, you have to run the engine and transmission harder (hotter) and put more centrifugal forces on your tires and lubrication. All of these things will have a shorter life span if you're pushing 20% faster over the same distance with all else being the equal.

The 160 mile difference mentioned above is almost 3 hours of 55mph driving time. How long does a gas stop take anyway? The slower driver gains back maybe 10 miles by skipping that stop.

As others already said, their time is most important so they're ok with the shorter vehicle life span.

What you missed is the faster you drive, the worse your fuel mileage. This requires you to stop more often to refuel which cuts in to the time you saved by initially driving faster. If you argue that your tank is larger allowing to go farther, you still lose additional time refueling your 50 gallons verses my 30 even if we make an equal number of stops.

If you look from the maintenance side, you have to run the engine and transmission harder (hotter) and put more centrifugal forces on your tires and lubrication. All of these things will have a shorter life span if you're pushing 20% faster over the same distance with all else being the equal.

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

Jayco-noslide wrote:
One of the posts claims that you really can cover lots more miles per day (160?) going faster. I don't buy it. It's not your fastest speed that depends on how far you can go but your average speed for the day and the difference in the average between 70 or more and 58 or 60 is only going to be a few miles/hr. maybe 25 or so miles more in a day, not 160. Stops and slow downs for hills and traffic will bring the averages closer together. Unless, you drive non-stop for the entire day and don't slow down for anything and that's no fun and dangerous. We've all had RV's pass us only to see them again at a rest stop down the road.

Since I'm the one that put up some figures I believe your talking about my post so lets do a little math since you don't "buy it."

8 hours of travel at 55mph is 440 miles. True?

8 hours of travel at 75mph is 600 miles. True?

600 miles - 440 miles = 160 MORE miles a day. True?

160/ day on a 2 week vacation is 2,240 MORE miles they can cover and see things. That is LOTS of more miles.

Can you show me where my math is incorrect? :h

As far as slowing down; I have a Duramax diesel and tow a 7,000 pound TT. I can set the cruise from 40 to 75 and it will hold that speed if I want it to on any hill I have been up in the US.

As far as seeing them at a rest stop down the road; that may be true. They can rest or have lunch or tour a museum or whatever for over an hour and a half and cover the same amount of distance that you can and you can't take a break; you have to drive all day without a break or seeing anything.

It goes like this: The less time you're on the road the more time it give you to __________________________ fill in the blank. :)

And your way is an advantage? :h

Ha ha, love math! But really some people are just not in a hurry and I'm okay with that. For us when we travel we are trying to get to point B as 'fast as reasonable' so we can do our riding and camping thing.I'd rather have one long day on the road at 75 then two short days on the road going 55 as it would mean more riding and camping where ever we might be going to for vacation.

Jayco-noslide wrote:
One of the posts claims that you really can cover lots more miles per day (160?) going faster. I don't buy it. It's not your fastest speed that depends on how far you can go but your average speed for the day and the difference in the average between 70 or more and 58 or 60 is only going to be a few miles/hr. maybe 25 or so miles more in a day, not 160. Stops and slow downs for hills and traffic will bring the averages closer together. Unless, you drive non-stop for the entire day and don't slow down for anything and that's no fun and dangerous. We've all had RV's pass us only to see them again at a rest stop down the road.

Since I'm the one that put up some figures I believe your talking about my post so lets do a little math since you don't "buy it."

8 hours of travel at 55mph is 440 miles. True?

8 hours of travel at 75mph is 600 miles. True?

600 miles - 440 miles = 160 MORE miles a day. True?

160/ day on a 2 week vacation is 2,240 MORE miles they can cover and see things. That is LOTS of more miles.

Can you show me where my math is incorrect? :h

As far as slowing down; I have a Duramax diesel and tow a 7,000 pound TT. I can set the cruise from 40 to 75 and it will hold that speed if I want it to on any hill I have been up in the US.

As far as seeing them at a rest stop down the road; that may be true. They can rest or have lunch or tour a museum or whatever for over an hour and a half and cover the same amount of distance that you can and you can't take a break; you have to drive all day without a break or seeing anything.

It goes like this: The less time you're on the road the more time it give you to __________________________ fill in the blank. :)

And your way is an advantage? :h

Hammerhead wrote:
ORS 811.315 doesn't state the left lane is for passing. It states that it is generally illegal in Oregon to drive in the left lane at less than the normal speed of traffic.

Lawyers make their money arguing about what is the "normal" speed of traffic. Is it the posted speed limit, 5 MPH above the limit, the speed at which no more than 15% of drivers actually drive?

As for me, I hang out in the right lane at the posted speed limit when towing on freeways. On some of the winding mountain passes, I may go slow with the trucks when there is heavy traffic just to avoid making numerous passes .

But ORS 811.325 does for trucks, campers and trailers.

One of the posts claims that you really can cover lots more miles per day (160?) going faster. I don't buy it. It's not your fastest speed that depends on how far you can go but your average speed for the day and the difference in the average between 70 or more and 58 or 60 is only going to be a few miles/hr. maybe 25 or so miles more in a day, not 160. Stops and slow downs for hills and traffic will bring the averages closer together. Unless, you drive non-stop for the entire day and don't slow down for anything and that's no fun and dangerous. We've all had RV's pass us only to see them again at a rest stop down the road.